Method of making needle latches



Aug. 11, 1931. A. ('3. PARLINI 1,818,746

METHOD OF MAKINQNEEDLE LATCHES Filed July :5, 1929 I adapted'to be manipulated by Patented Aug. 11, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ALEXANDER C. PARLINI, OF WOODSIDE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T MACHINE CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE METHOD OF MAKING NEEDLE LATCHES Application filed July 3,

This invention relates to knitting needles hand or in a machine for repairing runs in knitted fabrics and particularly to the latch construction for this type of needle.

Heretofore, great difiiculty has been experienced in the use of spring latches in connection with needles employed for repairing runs in stockings by reason of the failure of the latch to remain in its retracted or open position when thrown upwardly by the engagement thereagainst of a cross thread of the run during the time the needle is descending. Quite often the shock of the needle actuating lever itself is sufiicient to cause displacement of the latch from its fully retracted position.

Any displacement of the latch from its re-' tracted position at-times when this should not occur, incurs the danger of the edge of the latch piercing and frequently severing the next cross thread of the run.

Frequently, also, the spring sometimes employed'with needles of this type, for retaining or holding the latch in its raised position, binds or fails to retain the said latch in open position, or the latch is shaken sufl'lciently during the manipulation of the needle, for the tension of the spring to be overcome. When this happens the latch falls by gravity into closed position before the needle hook encompasses the next thread of the run.

It is the purpose and object .of my present invention to avoid these and other objections in spring latch needles by dispensing entirely with a. separate spring for the latch of v the needle and providing a latch member constructed of a spring metal material so that when the latch is retained in the slot of the needle shank it will of itself produce a spring tension against the side walls of the slot and thus afford a. suilicient degree of tension to retain itself in its fully retracted position or in its closed position, as the case may be, without danger of the same jarring loose or becoming prematurely displaced.

A further object of my invention is to provide a needle of this nature and for the purpose referred to which is exceedingly simple to construct and assemble and which 1929. Serial No. 375,660.

Figure 1 is an enlarged front elevation of a needle constructed in accordance with my invention, showing the latch member thereof in closed position.

Fig. 2 is a View in side elevation of the needle showing the latch also in closed position. v

Fig. 3 is a view in transverse section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

O GOTI-IAM KNITBAC Fig. 4: is an enlarged plan view of the blank of spring material from which the latch member is formed. P

Fig. 5 1s an enlarged perspective View of the blank shown in Fig. 4 when bent into shape to form the latch member.

' The needle shown in the drawings comprises a shank portion 1 which is formed at its end with a hook 2. The shank portion of the needle is provided with a slot 3. The

latch member 4, hereinafter described, is

adapted to be pivotally secured in said slot by means of a suitable pivot pin 5.

The latch member is formed out of a thin flat sheet of spring material as shown in Fig. 4 and is shaped so that it has the arms 7 6 and 7 The flat sheet of spring material thus formed is then bent upon a transverse axis so as to bring the arm portions towards each other in the form shown in Fig. 5. Pivot pin holes 8 and 9 are formed in the ends of said arms. The nose 10 or the portion of the latch member at the bend thereof is preferably somewhat rounded out instead of being sharply bent so as to form something in the nature of an enclosing housing in which the point of the hook portion of the needle shankis received.

The two spring arms are pressed together or towards each other against their natural spring resiliency or resistance and when the m arms are inserted in the slot-3 of the needle shank and the pivot pin 5 inserted in place the release of the spring arms 6 and 7 of the latch will permit the natural spring tension of said arms to force the arms apart or away from each other and against the side walls of the slot in which they are received, thus affording a su'llicient degree of tension to retain the latch in its fully retracted position or in its closed position, as the case may be, without danger of the same jarring loose, said tension being constantly applied and of a sub stantially constant resistance.

It will be noted that by making the latch member out of a very thin piece of spring metal, its weight is reduced so that the action of gravity which tends to close the latch on the hook is also reduced. It will be also noted that the spring tension exerted by the arms 6 and 7 against the walls of the slot in the needle shank continues at all times and in whatever position the latch may occupy or in whatever position the thread leaves the latch in the operation of the needle.

The above described construction of the latch member results in a much simpler structure of needle which requires less time, labor and care to construct and assemble than needles heretofore made. No spring has to be inserted and the only operation necessary to form the latch is the bending of the flat arms of the spring metal blank and inserting these arms in the slot in the shank of the needle and then putting through the pivot pin.

In practice the latch d'evice would be shaped up in a die and in assembling the two arms are merely pinched together or forced into fiatwise contact with each other in order to insert them into the slot of the needle. Thereafter by releasing the pinch-' ing action the tension of the arms themselves effect the retaining of the latch under substantially uniform and constant tension tending to resist the rocking movement of the latch.

Of course it must be understood, that the combined thickness of the two arms of the latch when pinched together in flatwise contact with each other is just sufficiently less than the transverse dimension of the slot as to permit the insertion of the pinched ends of the latch in the shank of the needle.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. The method of forming latch members for knitting needles which comprises shaping a thin flat sheet of spring material having angularly extended arms disposed in the same plane, into a hooded nose with the arms in planes at right angles to said plane so that the arms extend from said hooded nose with the free ends resiliently diverging.

- 2. That method of forming latch members for knitting needles which comprises forming a blank of sheet spring material with arms at substantially right angles, then bending said sheet spring material upon a transverse aXis so as to bring the arm portions flatwise towards each other and at the same time forming the connecting section of the blank into a hood.

3. That method of making a run repair needle having a slotted shank portion and a hook shaped end portion with a hooded latch member, which comprises forming a flat L- shaped piece of resilient metal, then bending said L-shaped piece of metal so as to form two resilient arms spaced apart and forming a hooded part with said arms extending therefrom.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand on this 29th day of June A. D. 1929.

ALEXANDER C. PARLINI. 

